The Advocates volunteer observing the exhumation of mass graves in Lucanamarca, Peru.

With the help of hundreds of volunteers, The Advocates has monitored human rights conditions and produced more than 50 reports documenting human rights practices in more than 25 countries. The Advocates uses traditional human rights monitoring methods to document human rights abuses, but has made a practice of adapting the methodology to address cutting-edge human rights issues. 

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING: 

PERU AND SIERRA LEONE

In 2002, The Advocates began using human rights monitoring methods to contribute to the success of transitional justice. Countries around the world are in the process of transitioning from violence and repression to peace, justice and reconciliation; the growing momentum for transitional justice marks a new era in human rights work. More and more frequently, that transition involves confronting past human rights abuses and making institutional reforms in order to protect human rights. Human rights monitoring is one way to help ensure that transitional justice processes move forward.

Human rights monitoring can play a vital role in the success of transitional justice processes. Human rights monitors’ investigations and published observations uphold the integrity of the process; monitors provide moral and emotional support for victims who make the difficult decision to provide testimony; and monitors further legitimize the transitional justice process by bringing it to the attention of the international community. In the end, human rights monitoring also puts pressure on

The Advocates volunteers with members of the Sierra Leone Amputee Association in Freetown.

the government to implement the truth commission’s recommendations.

The Advocates sent a volunteer team to monitor the work of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission in November 2002. The Advocates will return at the one-year anniversary of the public release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report in order to monitor how the Peruvian government is implementing the Commission’s recommendations for reparations and institutional reforms. The Advocates also sent a team to Sierra Leone in May 2004 to monitor the work of that country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

LOCAL HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING:

OROMO AND POST-9/11

In 2004, The Advocates launched two new projects adapting international human rights monitoring to local conditions.  These projects are designed to investigate and document human rights abuses against immigrant and refugee communities in Minnesota.  The Oromo Project draws upon the large community of ethnic Oromos in the Twin Cities, many of whom escaped human rights abuses in Ethiopia, to document systematic human rights violations against the Oromos and to assess their human rights situation against international human rights standards that are binding on Ethiopia.  The Post-9/11 Project is designed to investigate the aftermath of September 11th on area immigrant and refugee communities (along with people perceived to be immigrants and refugees) in Rochester, St. Cloud and the Twin Cities.  The Post-9/11 Project provides The Advocates an opportunity to assess how the post-9/11 national security environment has affected human rights locally.